Johnson Financial Employees Head To Class At Racine Unified Schools

Five employees from Johnson Financial Group worked with students at Olympia Brown Elementary on Tuesday.

They read to the students, helped them learn their math lessons, and colored with them.

Joan Kuehl, the principal, said this is the first time the school has had this many volunteers come in from a corporation to help the students.

"We were thrilled to have them," Kuehl said. "Our class sizes are relatively large and we're having the volunteers help some of the kids by putting them in smaller groups to help them with reading and math."

Johnson Financial is the parent company of Johnson Bank and Johnson Insurance Services. In all, 1,000 employees from Wisconsin and Arizona are participating in a community service day called “Here for Good.” Other volunteers are working at local food banks, Habitat for Humanity and more than 25 charities in Wisconsin and Arizona.

Michele Strickland, a senior teller at Johnson Bank, said she read to some of the students, the students read to her, she colored with t hem and she even played duck-duck-goose with Carol Browne-Larock's Kindergarten class.

"It was rewarding being around the children," she said. "Especially since they are Kindergartners. All of my kids are grown, so it was just neat to be around them."

Amanda Meyer, a loan quality assurance specialist, said during the day she helps "make sure the money is right." So it was a natural thing for her to help students learn how to count money.

"It was nice to be able to play with the children," she said.